Features

The European Commission is in the process of ensuring regulators have more teeth to tackle a black-market refrigerant trade that industry argues is undermining efforts to curb use of higher GWP refrigerant.

Research into the potential use of solar energy and waste heat sources to generate cooling functions and ensuring improved efficiencies for lower GWP refrigerant were among several projects honoured at the IOR’s 119th annual dinner in London yesterday (February 21).

The European Commission is in the process of ensuring regulators have more teeth to tackle a black-market refrigerant trade that industry argues is undermining efforts to curb use of higher GWP refrigerant.

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RAC Magazine is the leading source of news, information and analysis for the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. For over a century, RAC has provided decision makers with unrivalled coverage of the latest technical innovations that drive this sector.

US supermarket chain agree to curb leaks

Safeway, the second-largest U.S. supermarket chain, agreed to curb leaks at 659 stores of a refrigerant that causes climate change and depletes ozone, and pay a $600,000 fine to the federal government.

According to Bloomberg.com, the settlement today with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the most extensive in terms of facilities under Clean Air Act rules that govern refrigeration equipment, the agency said in a statement.

Safeway violated the law by failing to promptly repair leaks of hydro-chlorofluorocarbon, a greenhouse gas that is used as a coolant. It will spend $4.1 million to reduce those releases, the EPA said.

“This is a critical step to assure that companies that make, use and handle these dangerous ozone-destroying and heat-trapping chemicals stop leaking them into the air,” David Doniger, policy director for climate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an e-mail.

Hydro-chlorofluorocarbon, or HCFC-22, is as much as 1,800 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of global warming emissions, according to the EPA.

The steps Safeway agreed to take will prevent future releases of more than 100,000 pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerants, according to the EPA.

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RAC Magazine is the leading source of news, information and analysis for the refrigeration and air conditioning industry. For over a century, RAC has provided decision makers with unrivalled coverage of the latest technical innovations that drive this sector.